Clash of the Smashers

Chapter Forty-Four: Beneath Perfection

"Falcon Punch!"
"Could you stop that? It's not going to work," Fox said.

"Maybe not for you, but I will break out of here! FALCON PAUNCH!"

Fox sighed, and sat back down on the floor of his cage. After Captain Falcon woke up, all he said was a few muttered words about Ness being a…something, and then he spent the next thirty-eight minutes punching the cage.

Twenty minutes ago Luigi had woken up, and told them everything that had happened. Two minutes after that Ness woke up, and sullen and quiet he just curled up in the corner of the cage and whimpered.

Shortly after that, Marth and Roy awoke, and after realizing that they were still trapped, as were Popo and Nana, they told the others what had occurred, and were told themselves about the Ness fiasco. Nana seemed slightly apologetic, but Popo wasn't doing anything but glaring at the others, certain it was their fault he was still here.

Pikachu and Jigglypuff were both pretty mad at Pichu. The three Pokémon still refused to speak a language the others understood, but from what Fox could guess, they were probably thrown into a battle, and Pichu turned on them.

"We need a plan," Zelda said, speaking over Captain Falcon.

"Agreed," Marth said, his tone quick and focused.

"What could we possibly do though?" Luigi said, believing the situation to be quite hopeless.

Game & Watch made an affirmative beep, while the Ice Climbers, Ness and Pichu all murmured in agreement.

"No! Donkey get out! Donkey beat cage!" Donkey Kong stated, before grabbing one of the bars on his prison and attempting to tear it out.

"There's no use Donkey Kong," Zelda said, "These cages are made out of a very strong material, and apparently they're reinforced with dark magic from Ganondorf.

"I'm sure Bowser and Mewtwo did their share to make these impenetrable, as have the Hands," Peach said, "But we've all been in worse situations, right?"
"Uh…no princess. This is about as bad as it gets," Fox said.

"Yeah, I have to agree with Fox on that," Roy said.

"But…yeah, okay," Peach said falling silent.

"So if we can't escape through the cages…wait…Game & Watch!" Marth called.

Game & Watch beeped at him.

"Can't you fit between the bars? You are 2-D…"
Game & Watch shook his head, and stuck a hand towards the narrow open area between a pair of the bars…and a dark field shimmered into existence. Game & Watch recoiled his hand back, as if in pain, and the field shimmered back to invisibility.

"That's not going to work," Roy told Marth.

"I guessed that, thanks," Marth snapped at Roy.

"Hey! Don't get angry with me just because-"

"Because what? Because what Roy?" Marth said, yanking out his sword.

"STOP IT!" Zelda said, "Honestly, what are you two doing?"
"Yes, stop. Marth, you can't even stick your hands through the bars, how could you possibly fight Roy?" Fox asked.

"Well…he started it," Marth said, putting his sword away.

"I did not!"
"Yes you did!"
"It doesn't matter!" Zelda said.

"We still need a plan," Peach said.

"Well…how about we escape when they let us out to fight?" Fox asked.

"It won't work," Luigi said, "There's nowhere to escape to."
"Oh."

"Well…maybe we could manipulate them," Peach said, "Does anyone here know what they want?"
"They want us to suffer," Ness said.

"Donkey say quiet! You not good!" Donkey Kong said.

"You be quiet! You know nothing! Nothing!"
Donkey Kong started to growl, but Fox shushed him.

"I don't know what they want, and I don't really care," Zelda said, "All I care about is getting out…and right now, it looks like we're trapped here."
"Wait!" Peach said, a look of excitement on her face.

"What?" Marth asked.

"What about the ones who aren't here? Like Mario, or Yoshi?" Peach asked.

"Or Link!" Zelda said, warming to the idea.

"What about them?" Popo said grumpily.

"They have to be coming to rescue us!" Peach said.

"Of course! All we have to do is wait!" Zelda said.

"Sorry princesses, I don't like the idea of waiting," Marth said, "And I don't think they could find us anyways."

"We'll see," Peach said huffily.

"Yeah, we will," Fox said, "And Falcon, WILL YOU JUST BE QUIET?"

Captain didn't respond, he just kept focusing on his punching. His arm was getting sore, and he'd probably take a quick break soon…his knuckles were starting to bleed.

He didn't want to say anything, didn't want to raise false hopes. Heck, he wasn't even sure himself…but as he punched…he almost thought he could see a crack starting to form…

In the Ruins of Corneria…

He was huge. Andross's head blotted out the sun, and his hands obscured the sky. And that was it. All there was of Andross was his head and hands. His skin was a dark tannish-brown, and his face had a distinctive monkey-like aspect, with a protrusive muzzle, ending in a fang-filled mouth. White hair extended down his head and to the back, where the neck would be if he had one.

"How did he find us?" Wolf asked in shock.

"Find you? He's after us!" Falco shot back.

Andross just looked down at them and cackled.

"ANDROSS!" Falco yelled, "What do you want you slimy ape?"

Both Falco and Wolf were breathing hard, and it took all of Falco's strength just to keep standing. Wolf was faring better, but parts of his fur and suit were smoking slightly, and with every minor movement he winced a little.

Andross didn't respond to Falco's yell, except to laugh again.

"That's odd," Falco said, turning to Wolf, "Usually he's yelling about how he's the brains behind the Lylat system by now."
Wolf looked at Falco, as if expecting a punch line to an unfunny joke…but as Andross continued to laugh every few seconds, he realized that the bird had a point. As he Andross twitched and turned in apparent glee Wolf noticed that his hands…were shrinking.

"Star Wolf!" Wolf called, "Get in your ships!"

"Sir?" Leon asked.

"We're getting out of here."
"Wolf…what's going on?" Falco asked, noticing that Andross was appearing to disintegrate before their eyes.

"We'll take care of that," Wolf said pointing towards the thing that appeared to be Andross, "You go after the Queen!"
"Wolf!" Falco yelled, as Wolf started to run for his ship, "Where is she?"
"Headquarters!" Wolf responded before leaping into his hopefully repaired ship.
Leon and Panther were already off the ground, and in a few seconds Wolf was too. As they rose above the buildings, Andross…wasn't Andross. Its hands had vanished, and all the skin on its face had gone, revealing a brown skeletal parody of a monkey's head. It cackled again, but a few shots from Wolf's ship distracted it, and as Team Star Wolf flew off, the pseudo-Andross gave chase, flying by some unknown means.

"What was that?" Diddy asked.

"Another one of Andross's inventions…" Falco said, staring at the vanishing shapes.

"Why did Wolf get rid of him? Weren't they just trying to kill us?" Samus asked.

"To be honest, I don't really understand why Wolf does anything," Falco said, as if he didn't really care, "But he comes through when he has to."

"Well, glad he could do that after he beat the crap out of you," Link said, looking at Falco, who looked like he could barely stand.

"I'm fine!" Falco said, raising his arm…and almost falling over.

"No, you're not," Bario said, "Let me help."

Bario put his hand on Falco, giving him support. Falco leaned into it, and as he did a violet aura extended outwards, covering Falco. As it did Falco gasped, but didn't resist and in twenty seconds the aura was gone, and Bario had stepped back, a thin layer of sweat on his forehead…and Falco was as good as new.

All of his wounds, cuts, scrapes, were gone and even his clothes were repaired. Falco took a look down at himself, and then smiled at Bario.

"You're getting really good at that," he said excitedly, "Maybe we won't need that dust anymore."

"Healing is hard work…we should take every advantage we can, Falco," Bario said, his words admonishing, but his tone indicated a twinge of pride at being complicated.

"Yes…you are getting good at healing," Link said, but before he could continue Samus flashed him an angry look and he stopped talking.

"Where to now?" Samus asked.

It took Falco a bit before he realized she was talking to him. He cleared his throat and looked confidently at the others.

"Wolf told me the Aparoid Queen was at Headquarters, which I assume means the Naval Headquarters, a few blocks away from here. I say we go there and eliminate her."
"Why?" Meta asked, "I thought our plan was to go to the Smashing Realm and destroy the evil at its source."

"Well, we did decide that, yes," Bario said.

"NO!" Falco yelled, surprising everyone, "Look…I'm sorry, I thought I could do this, but I can't."

"Do what?" Raichu asked.

"Be strong…but I can't leave my home like this, in the hands of Andross and that bug. Looking at it now…what it's like…no. You guys can leave if you want, but I'm going to stay and kill those fiends."
The others stared at Falco for a minute, silent. Surprisingly, Link was the one to break it.

"I understand. I'll stay…although I don't know how effective I'll be here."
"I will stay," Samus said.

The words were echoed by the others, and if any were unhappy with the decision, they hid their feelings well.

Falco choked back a tearful thanks, and started walking, leaving the Landmaster behind. Falco stopped and looked back and noticed a few of the others looking at him questioningly. Falco shook his head and pointed at the rubble, indicating that it would be impossible to move it through the ruins. The others followed, being careful to avoid debris and rubble. Soon they had crossed through the center section of the city and were in the dark streets between buildings.

"Agh!" Link said, as they passed under a low sign, grabbing his hand.

"What is it?" Samus asked.

"Nothing," Link said, covering his left hand.

Link's hand was itchy. The Triforce of Courage was still letting him know something was off…and judging by how the slight twinges and throbs were increasing gradually over the course of this journey, they were all heading towards something big.

The throb he had just experienced was pretty bad, but it didn't really help him figure out what he was missing. He continued feeling a vague sense of unease whenever he ventured close to Bario, but other than that he could detect nothing new…there were times when he wished he didn't have the Triforce piece.

And of course, Ganondorf was still out there. He had almost forgotten the guy, it had been several days since they had last fought. Their final confrontation was going to be soon…and Link had a surprise in mind that would make it the final confrontation.

And then there was Zelda. He didn't see her at Ganon's Tower, and she wouldn't have let Ganondorf grow to such power without fighting, so she must have been captured. Link felt for her, he really did…but there was something about Samus…

Raichu was not happy. It wasn't because of this journey, although he had to admit as he sliced his foot on a shard of metal for the third time since they started their walk, it wasn't very fun. No, he wasn't happy because he seemed no closer to Mewtwo.

He had joined up with the guard duty at Peach's Castle in the hopes of making powerful friends that would let him get his vengeance on the monster that murdered his soon-to-was wife, and technically he succeeded past his wildest dreams. The other eight were going to help him bring down Mewtwo, but it looked like that day was never coming. They had fought dozens of battles and beaten hundreds of enemies and yet…nothing.

Mewtwo was no closer to being killed now than he was three weeks ago, and Raichu would not, could not take much more of the anticipation, no matter how much he wanted to liberate other worlds.

Diddy hated Bowser. He was sure he wasn't the only one, Mario probably thought pretty poorly of the guy as well, but Diddy didn't know if Mario hated Bowser. He would help Diddy fight him, which was good because Diddy didn't think that he could actually beat Bowser on his own.

He joined up to check on Bowser, to verify the general suspicion on whether or not Bowser and Giga were the same, although everyone was pretty sure they were. Diddy had several tricks up his sleeves to take down Bowser, but throughout the course of this unexpected journey, he had revealed almost all of them and it was unlikely Bowser would be surprised.

His orange grenades, his guitar, his popgun's final shot, all had been used. Still, it might be enough to take out Bowser…but not enough for Giga Bowser. Hopefully he would have enough help to finish the guy off, and if not…well, Diddy had one final trick that he was saving only for Giga Bowser.

He hated Bowser, but he wasn't sure if he hated him for the right reasons. Diddy was sure Dixie was dead…and yet, something Funky said…

"We're here," Falco said, turning a corner.

The others followed him, with Samus trailing a bit behind.

"So are we sure that Wolf was telling the…oh."

Any doubt that Wolf had given them the wrong information vanished upon seeing the object in front of them. It was a massive purple-pink egg, formed out of a thick plated armor. Parts of a building could be observed around the corners of the egg, revealing the structure the egg had taken over, like some kind of parasite.
There was a small opening in the front, where the original building's entrance was. That was not the sole way in or out though, as the Smashers watched, a large insect like creature with many multi-colored wings flew out of some unseen exit in the back of the egg and into the sky, shrieking in an eerie, almost mechanical way.

"What's that?" Diddy asked, shaken by the unnatural sight of both the egg and the insect.

"That…was an Aparoid. And I'm guessing in that egg thing is the Queen. Come on," Falco said, walking towards the egg.

The others followed, walking considerably slower now that they were in sight of their destination.

"Uh…Falco…anything you could tell us about this…Queen?" Bario asked hesitantly.

"What? Oh…yeah. Last time I fought her I was with Fox and the rest of the team. We were in Arwings, so I'm not too sure how this fight will go since we're on foot. She tried to trick us with the sounds of people we knew, so watch for that."
"She did what?" Samus asked,

"The Aparoids can absorb people and machinery, and can mimic them to some degree. She mimicked people we knew to try and get us to be absorbed. Don't worry about that though, you have to be pretty near death to be absorbed by the Aparoids."
"Anything else?" Meta asked.

"Well, the Queen spawns a lot of larvae, and they mature rapidly so we'll probably want to kill those quick, she has some powerful energy attacks and a thick armor over her soft spots, so we'll need to blast that off quick. She can also transform when she's getting beaten, so watch out for that."
Before any more questions could be asked, the Smashers reached the entrance. Wordlessly they stepped inside, the ground an odd mix of hard concrete, and vaguely spongy egg stuff. The inside was lit by some light fixtures embedded in the walls and ceilings that still had some power, and by the material itself, as it gave off a faint glow that grew brighter as they walked through.

They were in a small tunnel, but a few feet ahead they could see it open up into something…something brightly lit.

They reached it in seconds, and with the practiced ease of people that have done this dozens of times they spread out around the room, even as they gasped in shock at what they saw.

They were obviously in the main section of the egg, as the chamber was huge. A large tunnel was where the Aparoids were leaving, near the roof and opposite where they came in. However, the thing that captured their attention and refused to let go was the Aparoid Queen.

She dominated the center of the egg. She was covered in gray scales that seemed to serve as a durable armor. There were no distinguishing features on her, and she looked almost like a tower in the fact that she was far taller than she was wide, she reached up to about half the height of the egg.

As soon as the Smashers had adjusted to her appearance, and were preparing to open fire, a sharp, robotic feminine voice echoed throughout the chamber.

"Bow before us. Submit to us!"
"What's that?" Raichu asked.

"It's the Queen! Don't be distracted, just FIRE!" Falco said, before shooting off laser bolts from his pistol.

"We are perfection," the Queen started to say, before the others all opened fire as well, pummeling her.

Shards of her gray armor broke under the weight of the assault, but there was more under that as well. Additionally, upon realizing that the Smashers weren't about to stop attacking and start worshiping, the Queen started to spin around at a pretty impressive speed, preventing them from focusing fire on any one section.

Small cylindrical things popped out of the Queen, her armor sliding away enough to let them come out, but not enough for the Smashers to capitalize on it. The cylinders floated slowly around the egg, growing rapidly.

"Those are the larval Aparoids! Kill them before they grow!" Falco said, turning his fire to the miniature insects.

The others followed his example, blowing several out of the sky, but more kept coming. As the Smashers were distracted by the larvae, the Queen stopped spinning and stretched out six wings that had been furled on her body. Pink energy was being visibly gathered by the Queen.

"Guys! The Queen!" Diddy yelled just in time.

The Queen fired off a large series of twining pink lasers that shot towards Mario, Link and Kirby, but with the prior warning from Diddy they managed to avoid a direct hit, although the small explosion after the attack sent them tumbling. The Queen folded her wings and started spinning again.

"This isn't working. We need something strong," Bario started to say.

"Okeydokey!" Mario said, clasping his hands together.

While the others alternated their fire between the Queen and her larva, Mario started to glow red, and small licks of flames shot out of him. He focused, and the fire slowly gravitated towards his hands. When he felt confident in its power he opened up his hands and fired out his Firestorm, in a brutal wave of flame, which seemed even more powerful since he blasted K. Rool with it.

It vaporized half-a-dozen larva before it even reached the Queen, and once it did it ground her to a halt and shredded the majority of her armor, the fire drilling into her like a physical object.

"Wow," Raichu said.

The Smashers didn't waste any time being impressed though, and opened fire into the red vulnerable spot the Queen had beneath her armor. Falco switched to his machine gun and shot off dozens of bolts in a few seconds, all while the Queen shrieked in agony. With her armor gone, a vaguely insectile shape could be seen.

However she didn't shriek for long. With incredible speed she shot straight up, her armored body obliterating the last larvae that was foolish enough to get in her way. She hit the roof of the egg and…didn't stop. She continued pushing, the incredible force she was using warping the roof of the egg.

"What is she doing?" Samus asked in confusion.

"I don't know!" Falco said, just as shocked.

The others stared at the Queen in confusion, unsure if they should fire or not. A steady rumbling went through the egg…and then the Smashers were pinned to the floor as some unseen force held them down.

"Now what's going on?" Link asked, a twinge of fear in his voice.

"I think…I think we're flying," Falco said, shocked.

"Flying?! To where?" Diddy asked.

"I don't know!"
The Smashers spent the next several seconds attempting to extricate themselves from the ground…and suddenly found themselves able to. Only problem was that now they couldn't get back on it. They were floating.

"Now what's going on?" Raichu asked.

"I believe we are in space," Meta stated calmly.

"Yeah, I think he's right," Falco said, staring straight ahead.

"Why? Just because we're floating?" Samus asked.

"No, because of that," Falco said, pointing at the wall of the egg.

The others looked…and gasped.

It had become transparent, and stars could be seen. The whole egg was stretching out and becoming some kind of transparent cylinder. Beneath them they could see the planet Corneria rapidly shrinking as their "vessel," for lack of a better word carried them away.

The Queen seemed to attach herself to the roof of the egg/cylinder thing, and as they watched, she too changed, spreading outward and growing a black armor. She soon took up the entire width of the top third of the cylinder, and looked like some kind of black and dark gray circle, the only distinguishing feature on her being four pink nodules and dozens of small spikes. Parts of the Queen that were barely visible beneath the circle were spinning, and four very pointy tentacles waved around the Queen.

A weird gravitational shift made the Smashers feel that instead of looking up at the Queen they were falling down towards her, but since this was space and there was neither up or down, it wasn't true. It was enough to disorient the Smashers enough for the Queen to get off the first attack.

Several Aparoid larvas were spawned from beneath the visible chunk of the Queen and were flung down towards the Smashers.

"Shoot the things she shoots at us…and those pink ball things," Falco said, using his machine gun to lay a fast, if weak, field of fire.

The others followed his example, destroying the larva first and then firing off a few shots at the knobs before shooting more larva. The knobs were hard to hit though as the armored tentacles kept waving around and blocking several of the shots.

Additionally the weird feeling of weightlessness and falling made some of the shots go wide, and it took a while before there was a noticeable effect on the Queen. Once enough damage was done to a knob, it shattered, cracking the pieces of armor around it. Soon enough they had destroyed two of the four…and that's when the Queen became dangerous.

Small brown objects started appearing in addition to the larva, and they moved a lot faster, small streams of energy trailed behind them. Mario shot one with a few firebombs…and it exploded.

"What are those?" Link asked, blowing up another one with a well placed arrow.

"Mines!" Falco said, focusing his fire on several of them.

"Great," Samus said, her Paralyzer barely having enough range to cross half the distance between them and the Queen. She had been reduced to destroying any objects that got past the stream of fire being created by the Smashers.

Falco managed to hit the third knob with enough bolts to destroy it, but a sharp clicking noise alerted him to the fact that his gun was empty. He started to reload, but as more mines and larva started to appear with his fire gone, he switched to his regular pistol. It's individual shots were more powerful, but slower, and the Smashers noticed the small drop in firepower, as the objects inched farther down…

It was Bario, finally, who managed to get past this part of the Queen's defenses, and fortunately before anyone was hurt by anything more than a few sharp cuts from shattered mine pieces. His magic balls managed to curve around the tentacles attempting to protect the last node enough to break it. With a startling crack the armor shattered, and the Queen opened up like some kind of demented flower, revealing a dark hole.

And out of that hole a long serpentine creature flew out, attached deep within. It had a dragonic head, with a thick plate of armor over it, and a large mouth full of teeth. It glared at them, and the Smashers knew the Queen was getting desperate.

"Shoot it!" Falco said.

He needn't have said it, as the others were pouring attacks at the head like mad. Unfortunately for them, not only were the mines and larva still spawning, but the head was moving around very quickly, making it a difficult target…and it was firing back.

The Queen's dragon head opened its mouth and shot off a large series of green energy rings that shot towards the Smashers. They tried to dodge, but the weird gravity/no gravity made it difficult and the attack pinned several of them to the far end of the cylinder.

They had no time to recover though as several mines managed to get through and explode near the Smashers, and it took all they could to stay focused and keep firing at the mines, larva and this new dragon head.

Meta started flying towards the head, his wings allowing him to move through the weightless environment…somehow, stabbing through several mines and moving on before they exploded. Mario swept on his cape and followed Meta's example, and the two managed to reach the head.

Meta Knight landed a trio of painful slashes to the head, on the side of its armor, and Mario slammed the metallic headpiece hard with his hammer. The head whipped into Meta, slamming him into the cylinder wall, and then repeated the action to Mario.

It was about to fire off another blast of energy when a laser bolt entered one eye, and exited through the other.

"Hoo yeah!" Falco said, putting down the sniper rifle, "Take that!"

The head shrieked and began to disintegrate. Several of the mines and pupae seemed to lose power and fell back, slamming into the Queen as the rest of her body followed the example of the dragon head. The explosions temporarily blinded the Smashers.

It wasn't over. Out of the flames a small creature flew out, about six feet long and three tall. Small wings buzzed over its body and a large eye dominated its front. Screeching in anger and shouting something about perfection it fired off a massive blast of orange energy, hitting Falco, Link, Kirby and Raichu.

The remnants of the queen shot forward, determined to finish off the creatures that dared hurt it so, ignoring the grenades Diddy was firing like crazy and the attacks the others were shooting.

The four who were hit lay unmoving. Falco let a sharp breath as his body smoked.

The Queen prepared to fire off another blast when suddenly Mario jumped onto her back. She attempted to fling him off, but he plunged his fist into her soft body and shot out a powerful burst of flame, cooking her from the inside out.

"I am…perfect," the Queen said, before exploding into pink dust.

The dust settled over the Smashers healing their wounds, and several of them stared anxiously at the four who were most wounded.

"I'm fine!" Falco said, getting shakily to his feet, and then finding the movement useless as he started to float away. The others echoed him.

"Well that's a relief," Diddy said, looking at Raichu.

"That was pretty impressive Mario," Link said, looking at the plumber with new respect.

"Thank you very much!" Mario said.

The Smashers started to attempt to float near each other. Raichu opened his mouth to say something, but a startlingly cool blast of air stopped him. The others looked around in confusion…and then Samus noticed that the stars were becoming easier to see.

"The cylinder is dissipating! Bario, make a portal now or we're all going to sucking vacuum!"
"What? Now?" Bario asked, confused.

"Do what she says!" Falco said, realizing what the situation was, "NOW!"

"I'll try," Bario said nervously, gathering energy.

It was obvious he wasn't going to make it. The cylinder was disintegrating slowly enough that they weren't going to suffer explosive decompression but it was already getting painfully cold, and hard to breathe.

Falco started to say goodbye when he glimpsed something big and gray flying towards them.

A second later they were swept inside some kind of bright tunnel, and the first thing they noticed was gravity as they fell hard to a hard ground.

The second thing they noticed was a sudden influx of breathable air. After taking a few deep breaths they looked around and realized they were in some kind of hangar. A force field had apparently been opened long enough to sweep them in, and then closed to let air back in. As soon as Falco saw the Arwings he knew where they were.

"This is the Great Fox! Alright!"
"Falco?" a high pitched asked.

The Smashers turned towards the voice to see a humanoid toad and rabbit staring at them from the ships entrance to the hangar.

"Slippy! Peppy! Man is it good to see you guys!" Falco said stepping towards them.

He stopped suddenly when a laser bolt landed an inch in front of his foot. Startled he looked at it, then back at them and realized they were each holding a pistol…and they were aiming them at him.

"Guys…? What?" Falco asked.

"We're arresting you for the kidnap and possible murder of Fox McCloud," Peppy said, "Sorry boy, but we're not going to let you get away with this."
Falco could only stare in shock.